Exclusive Winning Eleven 360 Deal Clarified

After some confusion about Microsoft's twelve month soccer exclusive, Konami has come forward to offer some clarifications.

Last week, Microsoft announced that the "new generation" versions of both Fifa 2007 and Pro Evolution Soccer 6 would be exclusive on the Xbox 360. Konami, the makers of the popular Pro Evolution Soccer series, released a statement to say that wasn't the case, "It has been falsely reported on some websites that Konami will release its Pro Evolution Soccer 6 exclusively for Microsoft's Xbox 360. These reports are not true."

1Up.com spoke with producer Shingo Takatsuka about the deal for more specifics. "The presentation was misleading," he said. "We never said exclusive for one year on the next-gen platforms. We said this year. We were agreed that it was this year." He went on to claim that a PS3 version of the game could ship as early as Spring of 2007.

Microsoft has held firm, however, and told GamesIndustry.biz that, "I can confirm that PES 6 and FIFA 07 are indeed next-gen exclusive to Xbox 360 in Europe for the next 12 months, as announced."

Right now, the Xbox 360 version of Pro Evolution 6 slated for a winter of 2006 release along with Xbox, PS2 and PC versions of the game.